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Page 504
utes. Then he said, "You mean you will sit here and wait for a woman to decide whether or not to attack a keep while your lord is prisoner inside it?"
"I have no quarrel with Lord Ian," Sir Giles replied steadily. "So long as Lady Alinor is content, I am content. But she is my lady. My oath is to heryou heard me swear itand to Lady Joanna after her. I do not say I would not have preferred Master Adam, but Roselynde and Lady Alinor's other honors are hers to do with as she wills, and her will is to pass it in the female line. Lady Alinor has done nobly by us in the sixteen years she has held the honors. I would be the worst kind of fool to disobey her. She bid me waitI wait."
"But where is she?"
"I told you, I do not know. Perhaps something detained her at Roselynde"
"No. The messenger who came to my wife from her said she had left the keep almost at the same moment that he did. She is not at Roselynde."
A spark of concern showed in Sir Giles' eyes. "That is not welcome news." Then suspicion clouded his face. "How did you know where to find us?"
"I told you. Lady Alinor wrote to my wife. I learned you were at Clifford from Lady Pembroke. Sir Giles, it is well enough to wish to obey your lady, but what if she herself be taken prisoner? What if some accident or illness has befallen her."
"She is never illat least, no illness could stop her from coming here, I am sure," Sir Giles said, but his voice was absent. Plainly, his mind was elsewhere and his thoughts were making him uneasy.
"Listen, this Clyro Hill, it is not far from here, is it?" Salisbury asked.
"Some five to eight miles only, but over rough country."
"Let us go tomorrow," Salisbury urged, "not to attack the keep," he added hastily as he saw Sir Giles' face harden. "We can leave the men hid, but at least we

 
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